The city of Aurora is in the process of submitting for a partial census recount that would look just at new construction, Mayor John Laesch said on Tuesday.
Aurora previously sought a recount after the 2020 decennial census showed the city had a population of around 180,000, down from 197,000 in 2010 — numbers that city officials have disputed, arguing that the city’s population is actually closer to the levels found in the 2010 census.
The perceived undercount, city officials have said, is costing the city millions of dollars in lost tax revenue each year.
Last year, the Aurora City Council agreed to pay the U.S. Census Bureau $1 million for a special census that the city hoped would count additional residents. City officials previously said that the special census would only need to find around 1,000 extra residents to pay for itself.
The census’ self-response period was originally set to begin in early February, with door-to-door counts starting the month after. But the day before a city-planned kick-off event, officials at the U.S. Census Bureau told the city that the special census had been postponed.
Months later, the city was given a new start date in August. Aurora Chief of Staff Shannon Cameron said at the time that the new start date could put the city at risk of a further undercount for various reasons, which would mean even less state and federal funding.
So, the city decided in June to further delay the recount, opting to re-enter the queue of cities looking to be recounted that Aurora was sitting at the top of.
Speaking to the Aurora City Council’s Committee of the Whole at its meeting on Tuesday, Laesch said the city is working to submit, “in the near term, an application for a partial census recount for new construction only.”
The first step is to estimate the cost of that recount, and then that estimate will be brought before the council for approval, which would put the city in line for the new construction recount, he said at the meeting.
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Aurora officials have previously claimed that the city loses about $4.3 million each year in federal and state funding because of the perceived undercount, which would mean a total of $43 million lost in the full 10 years between 2020 and 2030. And while Laesch said on Tuesday that the city is still in line for a special census of these undercounted areas, it’s unlikely the city will follow through on it.
“But, we at least want to get in line, and try and recover as much as we possibly can,” he said.
In June, city staff suggested the special census map could be redrawn to focus primarily on areas of new growth, basically guaranteeing that it would find new residents, rather than focusing mostly on areas that may have been undercounted in the 2020 census. And with the delay, more of the developments currently under construction would be complete, meaning more residents to be counted, staff previously said.
At that time, Laesch said the city would be taking staff’s recommendations and re-entering the queue with an updated map.
The $1 million Aurora has already paid towards the special census was not lost when the city re-entered the queue, according to previous reporting. But if the city decides to fully back out, it would get $900,000 back from the federal government.